"I realized was that hospitals are largely subsidizing the cost of the uninsured by over-billing the insured folk's insurance companies."

1. You have to back up claims like this.

2. I imagine for-profit Insurance companies would love to blame their prices on the uninsured.

3. Many poor people actually have insurance in the USA. Even if they don't apply for it, insurance can be applied for after the fact.

4. The wealthy, and the poor are usually covered by insurance. It's the middle class that needs attention. They have insurance, but it's not great.

I still don't belive our healthcare costs are due to the uninsured. Oh yea, every hospital has a fierce Billing and Collections department.

They are allowed to go after your assets if you can't pay your bill, and they do. Obamacare gave patients some rights, but hospitals blatantly abuse the regulations.

The right to collect in municipal court was never taken away from hospitals.

In my local newspaper, it's not uncommon for a hospital to sue a patient over a bill, and put a Judgment lien on the patients assets.

They claim they only do this as a last resort, but bankruptcy due to medical bills are still the number 1 reason people end up in federal court (Bankruptcy).

Your protections under a bankruptcy are not great either.

There are many hospitals that forced a former patient to sell their home (homestead exemption needs to be higher. In TX, they can't touch your primary residence.). under a bankruptcy.

In CA, for example, the primary home gets a $250,000 protection. (Look up that last figure. I know it's very low in CA, and needs to be raised to at least a million. You have a $600,000 home. You are only protected by $250,000 of it's worth.

So in America, if you do get sick, and can't pay all your medical bills, you have no protections. These for-profit medical companies will come after you with more zest than an unpaid credit card. I think CC companies are less aggressive.